Central Virginia Blue Ridge
As Tommy had been talking about for several days, the snow hit Central Virginia in a very big way! People living in the area woke up to as much as 15 inches of snow at Wintergreen Resort where it was still coming down around 10:30 Wednesday morning.
Power outages are widespread:
March 6, 2013 – 11 AM
Central Virginia Electric Cooperative Outage Status
As of 11:00 AM, 6978 CVEC members are without electric service due to the winter storm. That number is down from a peak of over 8,000 earlier this morning.
Higher outage totals are found in 5 substation service areas in the western portion of the CVEC service territory and along the Interstate 64 corridor with a total of 21 substation service areas affected by outages. Here is a summary of the major outages by substation area:
• Red Hill in Albemarle County (511 Outages)
• Whitehall in Albemarle County (1346 outages)
• Midway (658 outages) in Albemarle County
• Piney River Substation (1113 outages) in Amherst and Nelson Counties
• Martins Store (1624 outages) in Nelson County.
• Zions (476) serving Fluvanna, Louisa and Albemarle Counties
• Doubleday (263 outages) in Orange County
• Cash’s Corner (249 Outages) in Louisa County
• Cunningham (125 Outages) in Fluvanna
• Kidd’s Store (124 Outage) in Fluvanna
• Ferncliff (111 Outages) in Fluvanna and Louisa Counties
Members may view these outage totals and track restoration progress by visiting the Outage Web Map at www.mycvec.com. CVEC has received reports of high call volume in the region and high web traffic to utility websites. CVEC asks members to report their outages when possible but offers the assurance that our Outage Management System has the ability to predict what line segments are affected by outages.CVEC crews are working to restore service and will respond to any new outages that occur during the remainder of the storm. Their efforts are being bolstered by 11 visiting crews from Powell Valley Electric Cooperative, Blue Grass Energy, and Clark Energy, who were pre-staged at CVEC prior to the storm
What are crews finding in the field? Conditions are difficult and dangerous. The heavy wet snow is causing trees to fall which also impedes the progress of vehicles off-road. This slows restoration progress and often requires crews to transport materials by foot and repairs be made without the full use of equipment. Crews must also be aware that other trees may fall in their work area and must have a plan to ensure their safety.
For members that request a prediction of restoration time, CVEC asks that members understand the orderly power restoration process. Often, multiple trees have fallen along a section of the power line, requiring crews to begin restoration efforts at the fault location nearest the substation. Once repairs are made at that location, the crew will re-energize the line. If all is clear along the line segment, then power will flow to the end of the circuit. However, if there is another tree on the line, then energy will flow to that fault location until a protective device, such as a fuse or recloser, operates, causing a new outage to occur, further from the substation and affecting fewer members than the previous outage. Crews then move to the new fault location, make repairs, and re-energize the line. This process continues until all fault locations have been addressed. It is effective and gets the most members restored as soon as possible but makes predictions of restoration time for any one individual difficult.
As always, Cooperative members are advised to stay away from any downed power lines, and they may report outages by calling 800-367-2832 or by visiting www.mycvec.com.
Central Virginia Electric Cooperative is a member-owned, not-for-profit, electric utility serving the rural portions of 14 Virginia counties.
In addition to accidents, power outages have become a large problem due to the heavy wet snow pulling down power lines and trees. Nearly 90,000 Virginia residents were without power Wednesday morning.
Tommy says the snow will begin tapering off by late Wednesday afternoon, but the winds will hang in there into the evening.
Thursday looks mostly sunny with temps in the 40’s in the valley and near 30 in the mountains.
By Sunday, temps will be in the mid 50’s with sunny skies.
